Neighbors who heard the 3:30 p.m. attack on the 1600 block of Pear Drive, off the Monument Boulevard corridor, intervened and scared the dogs away from the boy, he said. The victim's injuries were not life-threatening.

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"Several residents of the area saw the pit bulls attacking the juvenile, and they were screaming, trying to get the dogs to go away," Wiesendanger said. "One person got a pipe and tried to hit the dogs, and another person fired a . 22-caliber handgun to scare the dogs away."

The tactics worked, and the boy was freed, he said. The dogs were taken by animal control officers and are being quarantined. The Police Department and the Contra Costa County Animal Control unit are both investigating the incident.

Investigators have identified the home where the dogs lived, which is around the corner from where the attack occurred, Wiesendanger said.

"The dogs were running loose," he said. "The dogs were not at their residence. There was nothing the boy did wrong." The boy was lying in the street when paramedics arrived.

Police know of no previous attacks by the dogs, and this is one of the first such attacks to occur in the city in recent history, Wiesendanger said.